Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[Salacious Kitty]

13 minutes ago, susannah said:

I wish they would retire Nancy's obsession with booze and the stupid handwaving!

 

I wish they would retire Nancy. 😀

[susannah]

1 hour ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I wish they would retire Nancy. 😀

Me too, but then they might bring back Lorraine!

[AZChristian]

12 hours ago, susannah said:

Me too, but then they might bring back Lorraine!

We definitely do NOT want that!!!!

[Splashy]

21 hours ago, mlp said:

I've always thought that he did that mainly to keep frosting and crumbs out of his whiskers then started playing it up a bit when viewers mentioned it.  It doesn't annoy me like Nancy's nonsense does.

Oohhhh, yeah, maybe that's why he does it. I never thought of that. 

 

15 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

She went the entire Halloween Baking Championship without using it. I think Duuuuuude is officially retired.

I didn't realize that. I thought I heard it at least once, but could be my imagination!

 

[Salacious Kitty]

8 minutes ago, Splashy said:

I didn't realize that. I thought I heard it at least once, but could be my imagination!

 

Yeah, I kept waiting for it, but it never materialized. 

[mlp]

17 hours ago, susannah said:

Me too, but then they might bring back Lorraine!

I liked Lorraine a lot and I'd be very happy if she returned but I've read that she's involved in other pursuits back home in England so I don't think there's any danger of her returning.

[Madding crowd]

19 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I wish they would retire Nancy. 😀

I like Nancy and don’t think women need to be put out to pasture because they aren’t young and skinny. Of course people like who they like but men are rarely forced into retirement the way women are. Carla and Duff are older than the average host too. Nancy liking booze is no different than when Mary Berry liked booze on the British Baking Show. Likely thought up by producers and played up much like Carla being quirky and Duff being grumpy.
I assume they all criticize various aspects and the show decides what to focus on; I do notice they often show Carla talking about taste, Duff talking about texture and bake level and Nancy talking about decorations but they probably all talk about everything. 

[MerBearHou]

Just now, Madding crowd said:

I like Nancy and don’t think women need to be put out to pasture because they aren’t young and skinny. Of course people like who they like but men are rarely forced into retirement the way women are. Carla and Duff are older than the average host too. Nancy liking booze is no different than when Mary Berry liked booze on the British Baking Show. Likely thought up by producers and played up much like Carla being quirky and Duff being grumpy.
I assume they all criticize various aspects and the show decides what to focus on; I do notice they often show Carla talking about taste, Duff talking about texture and bake level and Nancy talking about decorations but they probably all talk about everything. 

I have to applaud so much of the above -- you said it so well and I 1000%, wholeheartedly concur about older women.  

I've often felt that the booze thing is brought up first by others because it has become a "thing" to mention and goodnaturedly tease Nancy, Mary and Prue.  All three play along but it's often brought up by others.

[susannah]

53 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

I like Nancy and don’t think women need to be put out to pasture because they aren’t young and skinny. Of course people like who they like but men are rarely forced into retirement the way women are. Carla and Duff are older than the average host too. Nancy liking booze is no different than when Mary Berry liked booze on the British Baking Show. Likely thought up by producers and played up much like Carla being quirky and Duff being grumpy.
I assume they all criticize various aspects and the show decides what to focus on; I do notice they often show Carla talking about taste, Duff talking about texture and bake level and Nancy talking about decorations but they probably all talk about everything. 

I didn't read anything about not wanting to see Nancy on the show, or that she needs to be forced into retirement, because she isn't young and thin, and I certainly didn't say it. I dislike Nancy because I think she is obnoxious, and is obsessed with booze/holiday looks, and that opinion is okay to have. I don't watch the British Baking show but it is beside the point anyway. It seems like your post has a few "possiblys" and "likelys" but I have seen how Nancy acts for years.

[Salacious Kitty]

I certainly didn't say anything about retiring Nancy because of her age or weight. Like @susannah said, she's  obnoxious and one-note. She comes off as not that knowledgeable. 

I'd swap her out for Stephanie Boswell in a heartbeat. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Salacious Kitty

[ladyscorpio]

I just watched both episodes back to back and I was thinking Jennifer would be the one to go home on the second episode. She struggled on  both episodes and cannot decorate. I can see why Alex went home though. I didn't like Kevin's yule log, it wasn't impressive. I think Greg is a cutie, I couldn't believe he actually rolled his eyes at a comment that Karla made about his dish. I forgot what exactly she said but normally the contestants are overly nice to the judges and just say okay after they've been critiqued. Maybe it just looked like he did but he didn't mean to? Jesse is my favorite host. he's a cutie also. I'm surprised that one girl ( I forgot her name) that made a round tree red velvet cake instead of an opera cake didn't get dinged for it. Duff just made a comment asking if it's really an opera cake. In the past when a person didn't stick to what the theme was, they would get dinged for it and I think they would be in jeopardy of being eliminated, if I remember correctly. None of the judges really bother me, the only one that really did was Molly. I think Justine would be a fun person to hang out with, she's always laughing and loud. Josh's  raspy voice reminds me of a cartoon character. I don't have any favorites yet. Count me in as not liking the cam. The bakers are already pressed for time as it is. If I was on the show, I wouldn't risk stopping what I'm doing to run over and talk about my feelings. That would add even more stress!!  Wasn't HBC always about Christmas? Or do they show another one after this season that is just for Christmas? I've watched it in the past but I can't remember them having just a Fall/Thanksgiving one by itself, I thought they always do  the Christmas theme ones. 

[Salacious Kitty]

It's always included Fall and Thanksgiving. They have to eliminate a lot of people! 😀

[ladyscorpio]

10 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

It's always included Fall and Thanksgiving. They have to eliminate a lot of people! 😀

I couldn't remember,  so they have the Fall/ Thanksgiving in the same season as Christmas?

[Salacious Kitty]

1 minute ago, ladyscorpio said:

I couldn't remember,  so they have the Fall/ Thanksgiving in the same season as Christmas?

Yup. If you start with 12 bakers, you need at least 8 weeks (there's usually a double elimination in there somewhere). 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Salacious Kitty
Spacing issues

[Madding crowd]

2 hours ago, susannah said:

I didn't read anything about not wanting to see Nancy on the show, or that she needs to be forced into retirement, because she isn't young and thin, and I certainly didn't say it. I dislike Nancy because I think she is obnoxious, and is obsessed with booze/holiday looks, and that opinion is okay to have. I don't watch the British Baking show but it is beside the point anyway. It seems like your post has a few "possiblys" and "likelys" but I have seen how Nancy acts for years.

Posts have said she needs to be retired and put out to pasture. And it really isn’t just likely  but a sure thing that editors work on this and all shows to craft storylines. All shows are edited and all critiques are shortened for TV.

https://www.insider.com/behind-the-scenes-secrets-about-cooking-competitions?amp  The attached article talks a bit about editing 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Madding crowd

[Splashy]

32 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

The attached article talks a bit about editing 

Interesting article; thanks for posting 🙂

[lavenderblue]

There was one moment from Nancy in the last episode that I found really obnoxious, and the extent of the editing shenanigans there was the choice to include it -- her cross-eyed "sour" face when one of the bakers (Sharrod?) used lemon in the first bake, which Duff enjoyed but she found to be too much. She said she found it too tart, which is fine, but the face was such a childish reaction to play up.

[TVbitch]

Finally saw the first 2 episodes. Love the Baker Cam!! What can I say, I have just always really enjoyed watching bakers talk to a wall. And I felt like I really wasn't getting enough of the bakers talking from the bakers talking at their stations, talking with Jesse, talking in their talking heads, and talking in voice-over while they bake. Really hoping next season they will have cameras inside the ovens! 

[susannah]

Does anyone think that Aarti Sequeira sp? would make a good addition to the show in place of Nancy? She seems fun and knowledgeable.

Edited November 19, 2023 by susannah
spelling

[2soon2tell]

I live in fear of Damiano showing up again. I don’t even remember which competitions he judged, but the constant “I don’t like gingerbread “ remarks to people who had been told to make gingerbread, and “this is not how we do it in Europe therefore it is bad “ attitude drove me nuts.  I’m ok with Lorraine returning. Mostly I tune out Nancy. I went through a phase of really liking alcohol in my baked goods when I was younger, but I grew out of it.

[Salacious Kitty]

12 hours ago, susannah said:

Does anyone think that Aarti Sequeira sp? would make a good addition to the show in place of Nancy? She seems fun and knowledgeable.

I think Aarti is better judging on GGG. I don't know how she and Eddie got pigeonholed into sweets. 

[Suzn]

On 11/17/2023 at 5:30 PM, susannah said:

I didn't read anything about not wanting to see Nancy on the show, or that she needs to be forced into retirement, because she isn't young and thin, and I certainly didn't say it. I dislike Nancy because I think she is obnoxious, and is obsessed with booze/holiday looks, and that opinion is okay to have. I don't watch the British Baking show but it is beside the point anyway. It seems like your post has a few "possiblys" and "likelys" but I have seen how Nancy acts for years.

I'm not young and thin either so neither her age or weight is the problem.  I dislike her because I also think she is obnoxious and she adds nothing useful to judging.  When she talks about not getting a particular flavor it seems more like a failure of her palate and her declaring something not holiday enough is somewhat her expectation of a stereotype decoration.

[proserpina65]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:24 AM, mojoween said:

Justine’s table display was so cool and clean.

It didn't read cool and clean to me.  It read clearly unfinished.

 

[DEL901]

I finally got to watch.   I was amused by Jesse wearing a sage green sweater during judging.  

[CrazyInAlabama]

Tonight's episode is only one hour.  They're rerunning last night's Elf on the Shelf contest in the second hour slot.  

[GeorgiaRai]

I can't argue with the decision, but I was sad to see Alex go.  I liked her, and it seemed like she could've used the confidence boost of a good run.  I hope there are good things ahead for her.

I feel like some of the judges' comments/jokes are crossing over into snark territory, and it makes me uncomfortable.  They need to be honest but kind...and leave the snarking to the professionals (i.e. PT posters)!

[libgirl2]

53 minutes ago, GeorgiaRai said:

I feel like some of the judges' comments/jokes are crossing over into snark territory, and it makes me uncomfortable.  They need to be honest but kind...and leave the snarking to the professionals (i.e. PT posters)!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is noticing the snarkiness. 

[libgirl2]

Maybe it is just me but I don't really like Ashley. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think Ashley reminds me of someone, and I don't know who.   She's over the top.   I thought Ashley saying why she choose Greg as an opponent was total garbage.  She only picked him so she had a guaranteed win.     I thought his pie looked better than her pie.   

Justine and Jennifer up for elimination.    I'll miss Jennifer.   However, Justine's watery filling made me not want to try it, so maybe a double elimination would have been better.  

Edited November 21, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[Grizzly]

What is Ashley wearing? Her tiramisu looked like a trifle. Lady fingers and expresso does not make it a tiramisu. Wish Javier had won the advantage. 

This pie challenge is tricky. Well, we all saw that coming. This just wasn't the competition for Jennifer. 

[MerBearHou]

So glad this is over for Jennifer.  Such a nice lady but timed competitions are not for her.  I felt so worried for Bert having to be her pie-partner.  

Justine had a really bad night — wow.

Edited November 21, 2023 by MerBearHou

[libgirl2]

1 minute ago, Grizzly said:

What is Ashley wearing? Her tiramisu looked like a trifle. Lady fingers and expresso does not make it a tiramisu. Wish Javier had won the advantage. 

This pie challenge is tricky. Well, we all saw that coming. This just wasn't the competition for Jennifer. 

No, it just didn't work for Jennifer.  

[Frost]

I never felt like Jennifer was enjoying herself, which made me not want to root for her.  I feel like she'll be happier not competing.  I was so worried for Justine.  She's one of my favorites and she screwed up both times!

It bugs me when people on this show use packaged lady fingers in their dessert.  

[BookWitch]

 

Quote

I think Ashley reminds me of someone, and I don't know who. 

As weird as it sounds Ashley makes me think of Snow White who's just over it all and the 7 dwarves are buried in the backyard. Has that look about her.

I knew Jennifer was out. Just couldn't get ahead. 

[MerBearHou]

7 minutes ago, Frost said:

I never felt like Jennifer was enjoying herself, which made me not want to root for her.  I feel like she'll be happier not competing.  I was so worried for Justine.  She's one of my favorites and she screwed up both times!

It bugs me when people on this show use packaged lady fingers in their dessert.  

I was watching Jennifer in the segments when Jesse was explaining things and the other bakers showed emotion or interest or something and Jennifer just sat stone-faced.  Maybe she’s done this in other episodes before, but I really noticed it tonight.  I suspect she is very relieved actually.

Edited November 21, 2023 by MerBearHou

[mlp]

I would have sent Justine home instead of Jennifer.  It seems to me that undercooked pastry is worse than a few spots of burned crust.  Jennifer wasn't going to make it much longer though so I guess it doesn't matter in the long run.

[libgirl2]

I agree that I think Jennifer is relieved but Justine had two bad bakes. 

[Madding crowd]

This was a tricky challenge; adding cheese to a fruit pie takes some finesse. Jennifer really wasn’t good at doing things quickly and she didn’t look like she was enjoying herself at all. I think I would try some the pies with mascarpone cheese but not blue cheese or goat cheese. 

[Maya]

Jennifer’s seven layer dessert only had five layers. I think she was over the whole thing. 

Weirdly I thought Thao skirted the 7 layer challenge too by doing a crepe cake. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Oh crap. Duuuuude is back. 👎

[Irlandesa]

4 hours ago, Grizzly said:

What is Ashley wearing? Her tiramisu looked like a trifle. Lady fingers and expresso does not make it a tiramisu.

Other than a zabaione or mascarpone later, I am pretty sure that is all a tiramisu needs. 

It must have been good because I do not think they'd be easily swayed by a regular tiramisu and I was surprised they selected it out of the other top options.

3 hours ago, mlp said:

I would have sent Justine home instead of Jennifer. 

Even though I like Justine, I probably would have sent her home as well if we're only going by the second bake.  In fact, I think she's fortunate that Jennifer was still around to boot.  I think the judges and producers just couldn't take another week of watching her struggle.  There have been weak bakers on these shows before but I can't ever recall someone whose eyes cried for help during every segment. 

Her bake wasn't great but I do think it was partially a pity cutting. 

And with that, Justine managed to avoid the curse of winning one week and being gone the next. 

2 hours ago, Maya said:

Jennifer’s seven layer dessert only had five layers. I think she was over the whole thing. 

Weirdly I thought Thao skirted the 7 layer challenge too by doing a crepe cake. 

If she's over it, she's been over it since the first week.

As for the seven-layer challenge, we didn't really get any rules.  I think they could repeat layers but had to use at least three different flavors.  It wasn't the prettiest thing but I was okay with the crepe cake.

Final thoughts:  I hated the "go halfies" in one pie tin competition. The only reason I'm not mad about eliminating someone is because Jennifer needed to go.  There are just too many factors and it'd be so easy for one pie to get burnt while the other is underdone.  How do they choose whether or not the pie gets some extra time to bake? 

[CheshireCat]

3 hours ago, mlp said:

It seems to me that undercooked pastry is worse than a few spots of burned crust.  Jennifer wasn't going to make it much longer though so I guess it doesn't matter in the long run.

I'd rather have undercooked pastry than burnt one. The undercooked one is still edible, the burnt one isn't. For one, it would be bitter and ruin the taste and also, truly burnt pastry (when it's very dark brown or black) isn't healthy either.

It wasn't their only critique, though. They also said there wasn't much ginger and the cheese wasn't really incorporated into the dessert.

I would have been okay with either of them leaving but I'm not mad over Jennifer being the one who had to go home. I agree with everyone who said that she did not seem to be enjoying herself.

I can't say that I found Ashley's dessert all that appealing to look at, so it must have tasted amazing. But there were a few where I felt the colors were a little off and/or the way it was layered didn't really work visually for me. I don't know what it was, there was just something in the way the colors were stacked that made the layers look at odds with one another.

There were a couple of others that looked really good, though (I think the first two or three) and was it just me or did Duff kind of shut down Nancy when she complained about missing almonds in the Italian Rainbow Cookie? 

The one with the tree on top was ... weird. The dessert looked good but I thought the tree was an odd choice. It looked more Halloween than fall as there were no leaves on it anymore.

What was the point of the half pies? Why did the bakers have to go up against each other? Why not make this a regular pie challenge? Or if they really had their hearts set on having bakers go up against each other why couldn't they do that with whole pies? This was so weird.

I must try plum butter with cheddar cheese just to have an idea of what that would taste like. It was the first pie the judges tasted, so if it made such an impression on them that they were still thinking that it deserved the win after they had tasted all the others, it must have been really good.

I'm not entirely sure what was so stunning about Javier's pie but I definitely appreciated that they edited it in a way so that we got a lot of Duff and Carla and very little of Nancy. Even with a shorter episode and, therefore, shorter time for judging, I enjoyed the judging much more than I did in previous years. I hope they keep the editing that way.

 

[libgirl2]

7 hours ago, Maya said:

Jennifer’s seven layer dessert only had five layers. I think she was over the whole thing. 

Weirdly I thought Thao skirted the 7 layer challenge too by doing a crepe cake. 

I think there was at least one or two that looked less too. 

[rlc]

I would have been very upset if Justine was sent home. She had one bad day vs. Jennifer having yet to have a good day. Also, I didn't like the fact that the bakers had to cook their pies in the same pan because it really limited their baking times/options. These are not the sort of skills one needs in everyday life to be a successful baker.

[mojoween]

8 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Oh crap. Duuuuude is back. 👎

You guys all summoned that like Beetlejuice.  Everyone mentioned it was gone, and here it comes.

Whew Bert was noticeably unhappy when he was paired with Jennifer.  But he should have been happy, because that would have seemed to be an advantage.

Ashley’s reason for choosing Greg was rather snotty.  I was so rooting for him to win the head to head.

[CheshireCat]

11 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Ashley’s reason for choosing Greg was rather snotty.

Agreed. I'm also pretty sure that it wasn't about helping him but rather, she thought that because he was a home baker, it would be easy for her to win against him.

[libgirl2]

32 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

Agreed. I'm also pretty sure that it wasn't about helping him but rather, she thought that because he was a home baker, it would be easy for her to win against him.

I agree. I also thought her pie looked gross but I guess it tasted good. 

[laredhead]

I think if they wanted a pie comparison, they should have let the bakers prepare individual whole pies, and the judges could have tasted them side by side, the same way they tasted the half pies.  I didn't see the reason for what they did.  Maybe in a kitchen environment with no time limits, and no assigned flavors and ingredients, Jennifer is good at baking, but she seemed to lack time management and decorating skills when having to perform for this competition.

Justine needs to learn how to bake pastry in the TV studio ovens.  Also whenever one of the bakers says they are going to take a chance and do something different so they can show the judges what they do, I usually talk back to the TV, and advise that is probably not a good idea.  Obviously Justine didn't hear me last night when I told her trying to make a rough puff pastry might not work out well.

[AZChristian]

So Jennifer has terrible decorating skills, cannot manage her time, and doesn't even know that it's better to prepare TOO MUCH filling (and not use it all) than TOO LITTLE.

Not only did she need to go, she probably never should have been selected for the program in the first place.

She seems to be a nice person, but this isn't "Holiday Nice Person Championship."  It's about baking.

[libgirl2]

9 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

So Jennifer has terrible decorating skills, cannot manage her time, and doesn't even know that it's better to prepare TOO MUCH filling (and not use it all) than TOO LITTLE.

Not only did she need to go, she probably never should have been selected for the program in the first place.

She seems to be a nice person, but this isn't "Holiday Nice Person Championship."  It's about baking.

She probably does just fine every day and was overwhelmed with the whole show. I can't imagine how I would feel with cameras all around on a sound stage with people milling around. 

But I do agree, she shouldn't have been on here. I guess you think you will be fine and then you are not? 

Edited November 21, 2023 by libgirl2